Page 48 of It’s A Little Bit Bunny (Fangs on Ice #4)

Forty-seven

Jules

I love you, Jules.

Nikolai’s words were like warm honeyed wine that slid down my throat and warmed my insides.

Let me get drunk on your love, Bunny.

When he left me this time, it hurt more than ever before. Maybe making love was the most crucial part of the mate bond? For a couple of hours, I worried that we had accidentally forged it—unknown to either of us. But there had been no blood when I had cleaned myself afterwards. And I had kept my magic locked away. I’d practiced keeping it tamped down to such an extent that I didn’t even transform my body anymore.

Without having a destination in mind, I arrived by the stream that snaked its way through my land. A flat, mossy boulder was one of my favourite thinking spots. I sat there and observed the frogs and salamanders, the tiny water birds, and Barnabas, who played in a shallow pool above a small waterfall.

When we mate, it will be with the knowledge and consent of both of us.

Why did his absence hurt so much, like I was missing a chunk of myself, then?

Is this just love?

My mother had warned me again and again not to give in, least of all when it came to humans.

It makes you weak, Julius. You cannot afford to be weak. You are a god among men. And gods walk the earth alone.

I remembered how bitter she had sounded. Had she not spoken of herself but of my father, too? I might be wrong, but I had come to accept Cernunnos as the most likely option for my father.

The book had spoken of sightings of an antlered man who walked with a fox and who slept among the deer.

Apparently, they had built him a temple not far from the moor where my mother lived. It hadn’t survived the past centuries years, but stories of it had.

‘Clad in animal hides and pelts, he planted seedlings in the fertile soil. Within a day, thick, gnarly oaks stood where he had planted the acorns. For mighty oaks had always been the forest god’s most favoured trees.’

Did I get my love for oaks from him? It was a strange idea that something like a preference for a certain kind of tree was genetic, but if it was, that must be where I got it.

Or maybe you are just reading way too much into it.

I supposed it was normal for children to want to know where they came from and to find the little things that connected them with those who had come before them.

I wondered if he had loved my mother, or if I had just been the byproduct of a momentary weakness in the Elven Queen’s life.

A lapse in judgment…

Was I making the same mistake with Nikolai? Would he just move on with his life and leave my side?

I don’t know if I will survive this.

I picked up a pebble and threw it into the stream. My Wolpertinger looked up and hopped over to where I sat.

A couple of months ago all you wanted was to be left alone. Peace and quiet, that was all you needed to be content.

“Hey, baby.” I stroked Barnabas’ wet snout. “I really miss him.” My pet huffed. “I know. It would be so wonderful if he never had to leave us. But we can’t make him choose between here and there. He lives in both worlds.”

Barnabas rested his chin on my thigh and settled closer to me.

“No, it wouldn’t be fair of us to ask that of him. We need to trust Nikolai. He loves us.”

Barnabas rubbed his furry cheek over my leg, humming happily.

“I know, baby. You love him. So do I.”

I tried to keep myself occupied, and it worked moderately well.

Saturday around noon, he’d said. That’s when he would be back with me.

When I felt him arrive, I had barely made it past the pond when I saw a tall, blond figure flying down the path that led from the archway to my house.

He breathed hard, breaking his sprint only when he was right before me. He stopped so fast, he almost threw me off balance.

“Oh my God, Jules. I missed you so fucking much,” he groaned. His large hands cupped my face and dragged my lips on his.

I missed you, too.

“Say it out loud. I need your words.” Nikolai slid his broad hands into my hair and took control of the kiss. I surrendered to him.

“I missed you, Bunny,” I said into the kiss, barely getting out more than gasps and whimpers. “I exist for the days when you are with me.”

I had not meant to say that out loud.

“I am not ignoring what you said, Jules,” Nikolai murmured as he left my mouth and kissed his way down to my neck. “We need to talk about this. Later. But now we have other, more pressing matters at hand.”

As if to illustrate his words, Nik’s strong hands slipped under my shirt, mapping my skin, and moved up to tease my nipples. One hand trailed back down to busy itself with the lacing on my trousers. Nikolai freed my length, then his, wrapping his broad hand around them both. His teasing jerks and silky hard dick pressed to mine made me feel lightheaded.

Pressing matters, indeed.

“Bunny,” I groaned, hips arching up into his grip, almost doubling over when precum welled from his slit and he used it to slick both our heads. “That feels so…”

“I know, baby boy. So. Fucking. Good.”

Every word came out on a gasp, and he underlined it with a slow pump of his fist.

“Kiss me, Jules.”

I obeyed, searching his mouth with a desperation my previous self—the one I had been before Nikolai stumbled through the arch—never knew.

A slick tongue awaited me, pushing past my lips with a hungry moan. It ended me. And I was reborn in his arms as I painted his hand, his stomach, and his chest with my release.

“Fuck, yes!” Nikolai gripped my hair, deepening our connection even more. It hurt, but I loved it, loved his bruising kiss, loved the way he sighed my name as the climax conquered his body.

With lazy strokes he wrung every last drop of cum from our cocks, mixing them together.

“Shit. I’m sorry, baby boy.” Nikolai’s distraught voice made me open my eyes.

Pain clouded his vision, and he stared at me as if he had seen a ghost.

“What’s wrong?” I slurred, trying to shake off the post-orgasmic haze.

“Your lip.” He inhaled a shaking breath, and touched a fingertip to my mouth. “You’re hurt. I am so sorry.”

“I don’t feel pain like a human being, Bunny.”

I hugged him when he still didn’t look convinced.

“It’s alright. I promise you there is no need to worry. My body heals impossibly fast. Give it an hour. You won’t even be able to find it again.” I stroked the stubble on his face.

Nikolai nuzzled his cheek into my palm. “Are you sure?”

“I am. And it was so hot.”

“Yeah, it was.” He gave me a reluctant grin.

“We better get into the house to clean up. Unless…” Nikolai’s eyes left my face, and they landed on the pond. “It’s pretty hot today.”

“It is,” I agreed. Within moments, we were both naked. We threw ourselves into the pond just like we had done on the day we’d gardened together. Nikolai had looked like sin incarnate in his sopping wet shorts and the crop top. Perhaps that was when I had realised how much I wanted him.

Warm hands turned me around and pulled me into a hug and a kiss that robbed me of all conscious thought. I wrapped my body around his, kissing him like no one else existed on the planet but him and me.